EUROAVIAns, welcome to a new series of articles about the history of EUROAVIA. Here, you will find the shortened version of “The EUROAVIA History Book”, released during the last Lustrum in Istanbul, Türkiye, the celebration of the 65th anniversary of our association. Our journey starts in post-war Europe, a time when European countries were focused on rebuilding and developing innovative technologies.
In 1957, the Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community (ECC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM), which brought together European nations to create a common market and a space of cooperation that laid the foundation of the European Union. This event inspired a group of students from Aachen, Germany, who could not help but think that cooperation across borders could help in the development of aerospace technology and the competition against the USA and USSR. Their vision was to unite European aerospace students to enhance European cooperation.
This vision led to conversations between students from Belgium, France, and the Netherlands highlighting the need to cooperate between governments, research centres, and universities for the successful development of the aerospace sector in Europe. All this conversation led to the first preliminary meeting for the founding of EUROAVIA, the European Association of Aerospace Students, on September 22nd, 1958, in Aachen. Students from France, the Netherlands, and Germany gathered and wrote the first draft of the statutes and general rules that still stand today. A second meeting was organised in Paris, France, in December 1958, where students reached an agreement on the draft of the statutes and set a preliminary date for the Constitutional Assembly.
Finally, from the 9th to the 17th of March 1959, the first Constitutional Assembly and Assembly of Representatives took place, in Aachen. The event brought together European students from Germany (Aachen, Berlin, Braunschweig, Stuttgart), Italy (Milan, Pisa, Turin), France (Paris), and the Netherlands (Delft) who elected the first Central Committee (C.C.), led by Aachen’s group, with Jean Roeder as the President. The Assembly of Representatives approved the first EUROAVIA statutes, which were officially registered on the 1st of May 1959.
With the effort of more than thirty students from around Europe, EUROAVIA was presented to the public as an association of European aerospace students who had recognised the need for European cooperation in all areas of aerospace. The association aims to encourage cooperation between European aerospace authorities, industry, research, military and civil aviation, and training institutions, with students. The newly elected C.C. worked on expanding the EUROAVIA network by acquiring new groups around Europe and giving opportunities to its members (internship positions, scholarships, excursions, conferences, spaces to publish scientific papers, and more).
If you are curious to read more about the founding of EUROAVIA, you can get the whole chapter in the History Book extract we created by clicking this link (just for this occasion!). Moreover, stay tuned to discover how the history of EUROAVIA continues thanks to the new articles here in the EUROAVIA Blog!